Warner Bros. Wants Christopher Nolan to Help Them out with Superman. Pretty Please?

Nolan + Superman = fanboys ruin pants. Could it be true? Could Christopher Nolan, the man who resurrected Batman from the ashes of rubber nipples and cheesy villains actually be involved in developing a “Superman” reboot for Warner Bros.? Yes, it could be, at least according to Deadline. According to the site, the WB has asked Nolan to “mentor” the development of a new “Superman” franchise for them.

This won’t be a sequel to Bryan Singer’s 2006 “Superman Returns”, but rather a completely new take on the franchise. Basically, a reboot. While it’s doubtful Nolan would also direct (again, the site mentions that the WB is looking for Nolan’s help to “mentor” the picture, which I assume means developing and then producing, so the WB can then later proclaim in the ads, “From the makers of ‘Batman Begins’…” i.e. Nolan), there is no word on Bryan Singer returning, or star Brandon Routh slipping on the tights again, though both are possibilities. At this point, the WB hasn’t ruled anything out.

Here’s the deal: I think this would be a bad idea. Superman is not Batman. You can’t “gritty up” Superman. That’s just not who he is. He can fly and deflect bullets off his eyeballs, for God’s sake. He doesn’t have a whole lot of limitations. If you don’t like Superman the way he is — the squeaky clean boy scout God-like figure that he has been portrayed in the films — then you just don’t like Superman. Which is why I don’t particularly care for the character, but even I know there’s just no way to “dirty” him up into a flying version of Batman. They tried that in “Superman 3″, remember?

Still, the idea of someone like Nolan taking a shot at Superman is intriguing…